Tell your "bad boss" stories here....

[Blondie]

This is going back to the mid-1980's, but he was the meanest nastiest boss I have ever had!

I was his executive secretary/assistant. We were living in New England at the time, and he paid better than anyone else in town. I even had a company car that I could use whenever I needed it. Everyone in that "company" was more or less bought and paid for. We all knew that we couldn't go anywhere else close to home and make as much as he was paying us, that's why we all stayed and put up with his verbal abuse. He used to pound on the desks, the walls, he yelled at everyone there, in front of clients, other co-workers, etc. He had no morals at all, he treated everyone like crap! His office manager finally had enough and faxed in her resignation because she was afraid to face him, that he might get so angry he might physically harm her! She also had a company car and left it (with the keys under the mat) at an exit off of I-95 for him to pick up! Yes, he was that bad that people were afraid of his reactions!

Sooner or later he got his though, and finally went out of business.

 

[snoopy]

I've been extremely fortunate that I've had great managers over the years. Every single one has been a mentor in one way or the other.

But I do have a horrid boss story -- she wasn't my boss, but a manager within my company.

It was the job I had before this one -- we were located in this crappy sort of building out in the middle of BFE with no where to go for lunch or on a break or whatever. So I tried to make the office a little cheerier, as did a few of the other people there by bringing in ocassional treats and the like. The ladiesroom in particular was rather dismal, so I brought in this huge Longaberger basket with all sorts of bath and body works lotions and body sprays, just because I thought it would be nice to have in there.

It lasted a couple of weeks. Many people thanked me for doing it, told me how it brightened their day, etc. One day I came in and it was gone. I was pretty devastated, not because any of the stuff was that important, just because I was pissed someone could stoop so low.

So I forgot all about it until a couple of months later, when this manager I referred to above got in a dilemma with her car breaking down. A co-worker of mine drove her home, and since it was completely out of her direction and she had a long drive to get home, once she arrived at the manager's house she asked to use the bathroom. The manager, in her haste, said o.k., and what should my co-worker see when she entered the guest bathroom but MY Longaberger basket filled with all of the lotions and body sprays.

She told me about it the next day, in strictest confidence -- I think she was afraid she was going to lose her job for ratting on the boss. I really wanted to confront this woman, but I didn't, because I didn't want to betray my co-worker. On my last day there, after said co-worker had already transferred to another department, I wrote a note and hung it in the bathroom along the lines of: "To the person who STOLE the Longaberger basket and lotions that I provided to the team, I just want you to know I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. I'm sure you using the products in good conscience." I don't know if she ever read it or what, but the girls in my office were insane, they were so happy that I did it, so many were bugging me to do it for months leading up to my departure out of that department.

From what I understand, she is still there -- still cold as ice. The bathroom is still crappy, since no one dares to bring in their own stuff as a gesture of goodwill again.

I feel sorry for anyone who has this lady for a boss, but thank my lucky stars I'm rid of her!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

I had a lousy mamanger at a resturant I worked at after HS.I had taken time off to save money up for college and I was given the worst hours out of anyone on staff.he also gave several female waiters a hard time about child care(2 were single mom) and me about school(I was saving up to start classes).I ended up quitting inside 3 months

 

[HollyJoy]

It's been quite a while since I had a bad boss! I've been a stay at home Mom now for 5 years, and the boss I had just before that was great. However, the previous one was a mess. I was working at a department store, and well, I was good at my job. I'd come up with ideas, only to have my boss take all the credit for them. Drove me nuts. When I got married and decided to switch companies, I laid it to him! Felt good! He's no longer with that company...

 

[palmtreegirl]

Mine was when I was a server at a major restaurant chain. I had worked there before but left just because I was tired of being a server. A month or so later I went back to see some friends and say HI, my favorite manager was still there and asked me to return to work, I needed some extra cash anyway so I said yes.

Turns out he was leaving soon for another store after I returned but I decided to stay anyway. There was a new manager, who kept trying to flirt with me, staring at my butt etc...a real prevert. I was dating my now DH and had NO interest in this guy what-so-ever. Well one night there was an incident in the kitchen with a horried cook, he called me a VERY bad name because he'd screwed up my order and was aggravated when I asked where the dish he forgot was(the entire table had finshed there meal and one person never received their food!) he said this name loud enough for my poor table to hear! I told pervert manager he corrected the problem but at the end of shift I'd had enough and told him I was quitting. He begged me to stay but I said I'm sorry I can't stay somewhere I was treated in such a horrible matter, he told me he'd fire the cook etc. I told him he should fire him whether I stayed or not but I was still leaving. He then actually asked me out! Knowing I had a serious boyfriend. I said NO.

That night my friends, now DH and I all go out to a local club, the pervert manager shows up there and proceeds to follow me around all night staring at me, creepy. Afterwards we went to a diner and he showed up there too. He came up to talk to me when now DH went to the bathroom. He even tried to sit at our table saying that he really wanted to talk to me and that he had serious feelings for me, I barely knew the guy! At this point after my stressful day I was pretty drunk, I told him to go away and if he didn't my boyfriend(now DH) who was in the Marines was going to kick his ***! LOL. DH walked out of the bathroom, practically on cue and the guy bolted. I never told DH because I knew he'd pull a stupid guy thing and go after him, I was just happy he finally got the point.

 

[sorcerormickey]

Let's see...I've only had 1 bad boss and she was a doozy! This actually just happened before I moved to Florida a couple of months ago.

I worked in a retail store for over 8 years - always great. Well, I thought I was smelling something a little fishy happening in the store with the Store Manager (I was an Assistant manager). Turns out she was having her sister buy things from the store's catalog division and return them to the store when she was working. Catalog returns were marked 50% off and then put on the sales floor. My SM would re-buy the stuff her sis returned, plus 50% off, plus her discount! She was making our store lose lots of $$!

So, I went to my District Manager with proof and she was rather upset. Someone flew in from our home office to talk to me and the offending person. They suspected something was happening like this at another location over 45 minutes away and wanted to transfer me there to check it out. I refused and I was fired on the spot for not transferring! The offending person was transferred to another location with nothing more than a verbal reprimand. Nice, huh?

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I've had pretty good bosses lately.

The one reeeeallly bad boss was when I was probably about 19 years or so. I was working at a Hickory Farms (my first job I got when I was a senior in high school), and during the time there went through 11 bosses. I used to train them... anyways, the regional manager, in a moment of stupidity, hired this one guy who was really sleezy. He called me a vulgar name once in front of customers, and my cousin & his friends (who were all stationed in the navy here) paid him a visit & told him that if he upset me again they would pay him another visit, and it wouldn't be friendly. He was soooo nice to me after that. But, what he really did that was so gross was conduct his private business in his little office -- drug deals and sexual encounters.

It got to be pretty bad. I finally called the regional manager and told him he'd better come visit our store & see what was going on. That store manager was fired immediately when they found out what he'd been doing.

A story that still makes me smile.... One time the regional manager & I were working the counter. I'm only 5', and he was probably 5'4" or so. A customer came in & asked us if they only hired short people at our store.

 

[Amberle3]

I've had 4 not-too-great bosses.

One was the first job I had after high school (story is on another thread) who told me that I had to decide what was more important - my family or my job. Quit that one.

One was a temp boss when I was working for H&R Block. I was assigned to a temp office until mine opened up, so it wasn't where I was going to be for the season. I went in one day with a headache that progressed to a terrible migraine. Every single return that I did was wrong, and I mean badly wrong. Hundreds of dollars wrong. It meant that the back office guys had to send it back up to me, I had to try and redo it, and then they had to recheck it. Meanwhile the clients are waiting (they were those 1 hour cashback returns, except they were taking far longer than an hour). I told my manager that I just had to leave, I was in terrible pain and wasn't capable of doing my job correctly (BTW I don't know what the offices are like now, but this was more than 15 years ago and we didn't have computers do the returns, we did them by hand). He told me that I could NOT leave, that I had to sit at the desk and keep doing returns because otherwise they'd be short-staffed. I tried to tell him I was costing the company money because the returns had to be redone at least once each time, and it was bad for the clients and bad for the company. Nope, he wouldn't budge. I was literally in tears from the migraine, so I told him I was sorry but I had no choice and I had to go home. For weeks I kept calling to find out what my schedule was going to be for the new office, and each week I was told I wasn't scheduled. I was finally told that the temp manager had called the office that night and told them I had quit! So of course they weren't scheduling me to work. That manager BTW had no experience at all with taxes, he had previously been a manager for 7-11.

The boss I had the longest (10 years) was a real piece of work. He was a micro-manager, and always on my case about something. He would have me revise documents for days, each time he'd bring them back to me with minor changes like italics or bold, and then a few revisions later he'd take that out. All the staff he'd had before had never managed to last more than a year. He could shmooze the right people, but was short on real social skills. He had no clue what was really involved in doing pretty much any job, and figured that no matter how long it had taken, it had probably taken twice as long as necessary. For years the office consisted of his him and me, and during that time he ended up in the hospital for a few months. I ran EVERYTHING, and although I did get a "thanks" that was about it. And after that there was no recognition that I was even capable of doing almost any job. He'd waffle between dumping stuff on my desk and telling me to "Just do it" and telling me that I couldn't do it because I didn't have the skills. When I would take the odd day off - whether from illness or just stress - he would call me at home and ask stupid questions. Not how-do-I-run-this questions, but things like "do you think we should make the title on the brochure green instead of blue? We should decide before our meeting with the designers in 2 weeks". He would give me stuff to do ON VACATION that I would have to fax back to him from the hotel. Just thinking about working for him makes me tense up.

My last boss was a total jerk. I started out volunteering for him to get used to the way that kind of office worked, and then he hired me on. My official start date was set, and he said that before then my hours were "loose", meaning whenever I could come in. So I came in for about 10 hours before that date, and I did the work they assigned to me. And then I didn't get paid for it - I hadn't realized that "loose" meant "free". He would often make comments that basically he could fire me at any time, which doesn't make for a happy work environment. He had a habit of firing people just before they went on vacation - in fact shortly after I started there he fired his best employee the day before she left for vacation. He then decided that her 2 weeks of vaction that she was on would count as the 2 weeks notice he was supposed to give, and that he since he was paying her for the vacation time he didn't need to pay her the severance pay (she had to complain to the government to get paid for it). The following week there was someone new at her desk - someone that our office manager, whom he lived with, was friends with. My paycheques were often wrong, the payroll summary slips were handwritten and sometimes in pencil (?!) and in general he was just crude and obnoxious. Oh, when I started working there I looked through the computer (that he said he had mostly used) to see what was installed on it and found porn. Lovely. Shortly before I was to go on vacation he said that business was slow and my hours were being cut. 3 weeks later I was laid off because there wasn't enough work, and yet right after that he hired someone fresh from school (paying her less money).

But I agree with the poster who said that what goes around, comes around. When I filed my unemployment report I brought in all my work records and my paystubs, and totalled them up at the unemployment office to show that the record of employment he had submitted was wrong. Oh, and my T4 slips (taxation) were wrong, he hadn't included my commission on them and when I asked him to correct them he refused, and he refused to provide a record of payments for tax purposes. So I mentioned that to the unemployment office too. I guess that combined with the previous employment complaints were enough to make the government curious, because I know they've been poking around in his records since then. And oddly enough, he's now selling his cottage... wonder why.

 

[hellow]

My very first job out of college was in a small accounting firm. The woman who ran the place was a total alcoholic. She yelled at everyone in front of clients, had everybody in tears at one point or another with her abuse. Many times she would go out for a long lunch and come back drunk which really impressed the clients. When we had company get-togethers she would get drunk and hit on all the guys (spouses of her employees). Most of the guys were in their early 20s and she was in her 60s.

Her accounting firm was the only one in town so I guess people were willing to put up with her. The thing I remember most about her is when we had a Christmas party (at a client's restaurant) and she started dancing with one of her employees and was so drunk she fell into the Christmas tree and knocked it over. Real professionalism.

I lasted 5 years at that place--don't ask me how I managed to stay that long--but I finally quit and moved out of the small town to get a job at another accounting firm. I was euphoric for years, thankful that I finally worked for a company that had respect for their people.

 

[diznygirl]

I'm so sorry to hear all these stories, but strangely happy too - now my bad experiences don't seem so bad!

I worked for accountants in a business management company - we were only allowed to take time off after tax season. Well, since they did personal and business taxes, and they filed extensions, it was ALWAYS tax season!

In Jan I caught the flu. I ended up taking 2 and half days off from work. When I got back I was called into the office. They were upset cuz - being accountants - they had figured out that 2 1/2 days off sick from work every month would be a bad thing and what did I intend to do about it? Huh??? We must have spent 45 minutes discussing this.

Then when I hurt my back - many months later - I asked to go home early cuz it hurt too bad to sit at my desk. My boss said sure, after I tryped a letter for him. Well, I waited and waited - then he took a looooong lunch. I got the letter at 4 pm and he harassed me to make sure it got out in that day's mail - which was picked up at 4:30! Next time my back was hurting, I waited until he left for lunch, then left him a note! He was mad!

Then it was time for my performance review and it was actually written there - dirty sneakers! How can anyone be expected to do their job in dirty sneakers!!!!! ????

There are many other stories - each as stupid as the rest - but none really as bad as the others I've read here. I eventually quit - and my last weeks there were the happiest.